571 Quotes by Hilary Mantel

Like many people, I am addicted to the physical act of reading.

Memory isn't a theme; it's part of the human condition.

My first two novels were very black comedies.

Psychics tap into what is collective: our regret and our sense of time going by; our common repression and anxieties.

What fascinates me are the turning points where history could have been different.

When you get fat, you get a new personality. You can't help it. Complete strangers ascribe it to you.

When you write, you are not either sex. But when you're read you are definitely gendered.

When narratives fracture, when words fail, I take consolation from the part of my life that always works: the stationery order. The mail-order stationery people supply every need from royal blue Quink to a dazzling variety of portable hard drives.

Writing comes from that territory of being invalidated. But I had a sense of purpose, too. I wanted to stop apologising for my health, and I thought I might do some good.